Avenue Q proves an ideal showcase for ten terrifically talented Trojans, eight of whom are making their Musical Theatre Repertory debuts, as USC’s premier all-student musical theater company opens its 13th season with 2004’s Tony-winning grown-up take on a children’s TV classic.

 The Robert Lopez-Jeff Marx-Jeff Whitty musical comedy smash imagines what might happen if Jim Henson’s Muppets started singing songs and teaching life lessons about adult topics like sexual orientation, racism, and Internet porn.

“Sesame Street For Adults” is just one way to sum up this ingenious blend of fuzzy-faced puppets, live human actors, melodious songs, and “instructional” segments brought together as a thoroughly entertaining coming-of-age story chili-peppered with salty language and at least one scene of puppet-on-puppet sex.

Whitty’s Tony-winning book first introduces us to a dapper young chap named Princeton (Terry Mullany, manipulating a Muppets-inspired puppet as do all but three of the production’s actors), freshly graduated with a B.A. in English with no idea what to do with his life.

Fortunately for Princeton, his apartment hunting has led him from Avenue A to the far more affordable Avenue Q and a “For Rent” sign in a building supered by none other than TV’s Gary Coleman (Sabrina Lynne Sawyer) and peopled by roommates Rod (Dylan Field) and Nicky (Reese Dawkins), live-in lovers Brian (Justin Schulsohn) and Christmas Eve (Renee Ye), sweet young thing Kate Monster (Liz Buzbee), and upstairs grouch Trekkie Monster (Colin McIsaac).

 In song after tuneful, clever song (music and lyrics by Lopez and Marx), we get to know these self-proclaimed losers-in-life up close and personal, along with a series of humorous life lessons taught and learned in song and an occasional animated video, à la Sesame Street, though with considerably saltier language and themes, ditties with titles like “The Internet Is For Porn,” “You Can Be As Loud As The Hell You Want (When You’re Makin’ Love),” and “Schadenfreude,” German for “watching a vegetarian being told she just ate chicken, or watching a frat boy realize just what he put his dick in!”

 Also figuring along the way are cabaret skank Lucy The Slut (Geovanna Nichols-Julien), a couple of Bad Idea Bears (McIsaac and Caitlin Oden) who delight in giving the worst possible advice, Kate’s grouchy grammar school principal Mrs. Thistletwat (Oden), and a couple of eleventh-hour surprises.

Other than adding three more performers to the Broadway original’s seven-member cast, director Sean Soper doesn’t try to reinvent an already tried-and-true wheel.

 Instead, by achieving the proverbial 90% of directing (i.e., casting precisely the right actors), this year’s MTR President has ensured a production that preserves all of the Broadway original’s many delights on a far more intimate scale.

A boyishly appealing Mullany proves the perfect Princeton opposite Buzbee’s prickly charmer of a Kate Monster, the duo expertly manipulating puppets that look to be the original Broadway designs.

 Field’s acerbic, high-maintenance Rod and Dawkin’s delightfully goofy Nicky have great best-buddies chemistry, and the former’s palpable heartbreak earns Field bonus points for unexpected emotional impact.

McIsacc’s goofy Trekkie Monster, Nichols-Julien’s sultry Lucy The Slut, and McIsaac and Oden’s preternaturally perky Bad Idea Bears are fabulous too, and like their abovementioned castmates, divide our attention between actor and puppet for double delight.

 As for the Avenue’s 100% human characters, they too are in expert hands, from Sawyer’s irrepressibly upbeat Gary Coleman to Schulson’s laid-back and loveable Brian to Ye’s salty, sassy Christmas Eve.

Vocals are all-around topnotch under Austin Karkowsky’s expert musical direction, with Karkowsky and his six-member band* providing pitch-perfect backup throughout, sound designer Joy Cheever ensuring that instrumentals never overpower unamped vocals, and choreographer Juan Miguel Posada inserting lively bits of movement every step of the way.

 Scenic designer Jordan Fox has created a particularly fine rendition of Avenue Q’s row houses vibrantly lit by Edward Hansen as are Mallory Gabbard’s just-right costumes, complete ensembles for human characters and all-black outfits for puppeteers, impressively coached by puppet captain Jacob Surovsky.

Damaris Eddy merits major props for the show’s multitude of props and Collin Schuster for some cute and clever animations.

Avenue Q is produced by Gabbard and Sarah Hahm. Harrison Poe and Tyler Ellis are associate producers. Jamie Salinger is production manager. Arturo Fernandez, Jr. is production stage manager and Beth Yeo is assistant stage manager. Stephen Jung is assistant musical director and rehearsal pianist. Fox is technical director. Nick Kassoy is assistant lighting designer and Janet Zhu is light board operator. Grant Gerrard is run crew.

 Musical Theatre Repertory At USC continues year after year, generation after generation, to offer L.A. audiences professional caliber musicals on an intimate scale, produced, designed, directed, and performed by some of the finest student talents in this or any major American city. Avenue Q carries on a thirteen-year tradition to smashing effect.

*Randon Davitt, Stephen Jung, Collin Schuster, Hannah Sobelman, Mikey Takla, Max Wike

Massman Theatre at USC.
www.uscmtr.com

–Steven Stanley
November 1, 2018
Photos: Mallory Gabbard

Tags: Jeff Marx, Jeff Whitty, Los Angeles Theater Review, Musical Theatre Repertory, Robert Lopez, USC School Of Dramatic Arts